Articulated railway crossing



Jan. 30,1923. 1,443,411;

P. HOFF MAN.

ARTICULATED RAILWAY CROSSING.

FILED APR-11,1920; 2 SHl IETSSHEET 1.

' Jan. 30, 1923. 1,443,411.

P. HOFFMAN. ARIIGULATED RAILWAY CROSSING.

' FILE-D APR. 9. 1920. 2 susns susn 2.

Patented Jan. 30, 1923.

. UNITED STATES PATENTVOFFICE.

PAUL HOFFMAN, or cIIIoAoo, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE AJAX roncn COMPANY, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION, or ILLINOIS.

' ARTICULATED RAILWAY CROSSING.

Application filed April 9, 1920. Serial No. 372,456.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1,.PAUL HorrMAma citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Articulated Railway Crossings, of which the following is a specification. I

This invention relates to railway cross ings and its purpose isto provide an improvedarticulated or broken .joint crossing. The principal object is to provide an improved location and arrangement of the joints so that certain parts of the crossing may be standardized and used in rail way crossings of various angles A further featureof the invention is the pro vision of a crossing. comprising four similar corner pieces or intersections connected by four intermediate rail sections which are.

similar in size and construction so that they can be interchanged with each other or used with other corner sections where the rail- I way lines cross atdifferent angles. A further object is to provide an improved railway crossing comprising complementary sections which have an improved interlocking connection with each other. Other objects relate to various features of construction and arrangement which will appear more fully hereinafter.

The nature of the invention will be understood from the following specification taken with the accompanying drawings in which one embodiment/is illustrated.

In the drawings-- Fig. 1 shows a top-plan view of the railway crossing; I I I Fig. 2 shows a top plan view of one of the joints, the connected parts .being seption of the locking tongues and grooves formed thereon; and i Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of one end of another rail sect-ion, illustratingthe construction of the tongues and grooves adapted to cooperate with the tongues and grooves formed on the end of the member illustrated in Fig. 5.

This improved crossing comprises four corner rail sections 10 which may becalled the intersections, and these corner sections are connected by four intermediate con-' necting rail sections 11 which are identical in length and construction. Each corner section 10 comprises two intersecting grooves 12, located at right angles to each other in the embodiment illustrated, and these grooves are adapted to receive the flanges of the car wheels. The tread portions of the car wheels rest upon the traflic cated on the outer sides of the grooves 12.

On the outer sides of the crossing, each corner, section is provided with a guard rail portion 14 located on the opposite side of one of the grooves 12 from the adjacent trafhc rail portion 18. vThese guard rail portions 14 are .fiared outwardly at their ends, as shown at 14 and are provided with inwardly projecting webs or foot guards 14 which extend transversely therefrom and are adapted to engage the webs of the usual traflic rails 15. These trafiic rails engage recesses 16 which are formed in the traflic portions 13 of the corner sections so that the heads of the rails15 form continuations of the tramc portions 13 and the inner sides of the railheads lie in the same vertical planes with thewalls of the grooves. Other angular guard rail portions 17 are formed as continuations of the guard rail portions 14 on the inner side of the intersection of each pair of grooves 12.

The intermediate rail sections 11, by

comprise trafiic portions 19 adapted to aline with the traffic portions 13 of the corner sections, and these connecting rail sections are further provided with guard rail portions 20 which aline with the guard rail portions 14 and 17. Grooves 21 are formed in the upper surfaces of the connecting rail sections 11 between the traffic portions. 19 and the guard rail portions 20, andthese grooves 21 aline with the grooves'12 in the corner sections. 1 These rail sections 10 and 11 are connected together by means of angular fishplates or knee braces 25 and 26, the formerbe-inglocated on the outer "which the corner sections are connected, I

relative displacement of the sections 10 and sides of-the corner sections, and the members "26 being located on the-innerv sides thereof. These fish plates fit into the spaces between the heads of the rail sections 10 andll and overlap the joints between the tions 11 are provided with interfitting tongue and groove connections whlch permit some relative play or movement of these sections as the rolling'stock passes over the crossing but they prevent any considerable 11 either horizontally or vertically. This interlocking connection is illustrated particularly in Figs. 2 to 6, inclusive. Each inner end. face of'each corner section 10 is provided with a vertical groove 30 of semicircular cross section adapted to be engaged by corresponding semicircular lugs,

31 which are formed integrally with the end face of the adjacent connecting section 11. Each section his provided between the lugs 31 with a horizontal extending groove 32 of semicircular cross section which is adapted to beengaged bythe semicircular lugs 33which areformed on opposite sides of the groove-30 as integral parts of the'corner sections 10. When the wheels pass over the crossing, theparts 30 -31 permit Somelateral swaying ofthe sections-10 and 11 and the interlocking parts 32- 33 permit some relatively vertical movement thereof so that the corner sections 10, upon which the pounding action of the wheels takes place as the tread surf-ace of-the wheels passes across the grooves 12, are permitted to yield somewhat with respect to the intermediate sections 11, thus preventing the breakage which would be liable to occur if the entire crossing were formed in one piece.

An important advantage of this construction is that all of the intermediate connecting sections 11 are similar in length and design so that they may be interchanged with any shape or size of the connected corner sections, which feature permits the use of the intermediate rail sections as 'standardparts with the railway crossings wardly from the intersection is similar to the other corresponding arm and each of the short arms which extends inwardly and connects with, one of the sections 11 is similarin length and size to the other corre sponding arm. Thus any corner section 10 maybe interchanged with any diagonal section 10 in'thesame crossing or anyother crossing of the same "angle. Where the intersecting railway lines cross at right angles, all of the corner sections 10 are alike.

Although I have shown and described a certain form of the invention torpurposesof illustration, it will be understood that it may be constructed in various other forms cated between each 1 pair of corner sections and means connecting said vintermediate members with said corner sections topermit limited relative movementthereof.

3. A railway crossing comprising corner sections, and intermediate rail sections terminating inwardly from the angles of said corner sections and connectedto said corner sections.

i. A railway crossing comprising corner sections having inwardly directed arms, and

intermediate rail sections terminating in planes normal to their longitudinal axes and connected tothe ends of oppositely disposed arms. r

5. A railway crossing comprising corner sections having arms of equal length directed inwardly, and intermediate sections located between opposite arms, said arms having interlocking connections to permit relative movement-thereof. v

6. A railway crossing comprising corner sections having arms of equal length directed inwardly, and intermediate sectionslocated between opposite arms, said arms and said intermediate sections having interlocking tongue and groove connections adapted to prevent relative movementthereof horizontally or vertically beyond predetermined limits.

7. A railway crossing comprising corner sections, each having a pair of inwardly directed. arms, intermediate sections of equal length located between oppositely disposed arms, and tongue and groove connections extending vertically and horizontallyon the contacting faces of said intermediate sections and said corner sections.

8. A railway crossing comprising corner sections, and'intermediate rail sections located between each pair of corner sections and connected thereto, said intermediate rail sections having lnwardly extending arms of sections being similar and interchangeable with other intermediate rail sections in crossings of difierent angles.

9. A railway crossing comprising corner sections each having four complete radiating arms, the inwardly directed arms terminating in planes normal to their longitudinal axes, and a plurality of intermediate rail sections each located between two of said corner sections and contacting on their end faces with the ends of said inwardly directed arms. I

'my name.

10. A railway crossing comprising corner 15 equal length, and intermediate rail sections of equal length located between each pair of corner sections and each connected to oppositely disposed inwardly extending arms, said intermediate rail sections being similar 20 and interchangeable with other intermediate rail sections in crossings of different angles. In testimony whereof, I have subscribed PAUL HOFFMAN. 

